‘Another cause of sorrow to me is the position in which the three pastors of the queen are placed. Last Sunday they were sent for to the staff-office, and there they were accused of inducing “dark and melancholy thoughts” in the mind of the queen--of not helping her to make the best of the present state of things. In one word, they were forbidden to put their foot in her house on ordinary week-days (they used to go and have worship with her every night). They were only allowed to go to church for service on Sundays. They are narrowly watched, and have been warned that, on the first complaint brought against them, they will be imprisoned for a while; and the second time, they will be shot! I was deeply grieved at this. I am convinced it is a Jesuit plot. Thanks to their intrigues, these honourable native pastors are kept under suspicion, and charged with misdeeds, so as to get them condemned. What success it would be for them, if they could say that the queen’s pastors were discharged from their office, and put in irons! It would make all the other pastors of the land tremble, would discourage the Protestants, and perhaps even the queen herself. That is really their aim and object--to discourage the queen, bring her to bay, take away from her the last persons in whom she has confidence, and who bring her any comfort. They are in hopes that, wearied and disgusted with everything, she will finally throw herself into their arms to better her position. One might really believe in a return to seventeenth-century methods! It is a disgrace to France, that in the year of grace 1896, and notwithstanding the good intentions of her government, it should be possible for such things to take place under her flag. I am humbled, heart-broken at the thought! Words fail me to express what I feel. ‘A new detachment of black gowns has just arrived, and is beginning to spread everywhere. The Jesuits have sworn to _stamp out Protestantism_ from the island; that is what they are fighting against, and not heathenism, which has still three or four millions of adherents. It is a fierce war, a hand-to-hand fight, of which no one in France has any adequate idea. The misfortune is, as I have said a hundred times, that part of the French army upholds them publicly, and favours their propaganda by putting her sword on their side.